Getting close

With Hermann Cross just a few weeks away the promotion side of things is in high gear.

Posters when up all over town this weekend. I want to catch the Labor Day weekend crowd as I try to attract local and out of town spectators to the event.



The "Shed" is ready to be unloaded. Banners are pre-loaded, sponsor towers created and much more.




Look for "short barriers" like I did at State. You'll be able to bunny hop them or run over them, you'll have to decide which way is faster for you.



Over the past few years I've acquired many 3'- 6" plactic stakes. The trash can storage thing was not working anymore as cans kept breaking and took up alot of room. A few weeks ago I buit this storage contraption for them to nest in until needed.




Weather has been awesome this past week, here are a few random ride shots.

Saturday team mate Mark and I head to Jeff City for the 6 Hour Tall Oak Challenge Duo event. Weather looks to be perfect. Then is Pride CX on 9/11, from there is CX every weekend til December!

Looks like Bubba CX is getting a face lift

Looking around the Big Shark site I found some details regarding the 2010 Bubba Cross Season. All looked normal until I took a real look and found a few changes.

Schedule
9/18 Pre Bubba Event- Team Rev CX Clinic- Co-Ed 9/18 Concordia Seminary
10/3 Pre-Bubbalogue- The Ronde von Evergreen Carbondale, IL
10/16 Bubba #1
10/17 Bubba #2 Dawn of the Bubba (Night Race)
10/24 Bubba #3
10/30 Buba #4 The Sprints of Darkness (Night Race)
10/31 Bubba #5
11/7 Bubba #6
11/13 Bubba #7- Bubba in the Seminary Concordia Seminary (NEW)
11/14 Bubba #8
11/21 Bubba #9- Mt. Pleasant Winery Bubba Augusta, Missouri
11/28 Bubba #10
12/4 Bubba #11 Missouri State Championships Kansas City, MO


Good news for womens cx
They have their own race and there are two categories. Good bet they will be happy not to have to race in the very large and sometimes crazy c race again.

Race start time changes:
A Race moves up an hour from 2pm to 1pm and is the 2nd race of the day, last year we were the second to last race of the day. I like the move, it gets me home sooner and there is still one group before us that grooms the course a bit. And the night races are moved up in time too. Last year the A race was at 10:30pm, this year 8pm, nice! 10:30pm is way past my bed time :)

Time Schedule for day races

Noon - Women A and B Race

1pm - A Race

2pm - B Race

3pm - C and SS Race

Time Schedule for Night races
7pm - Women A and B Race
8pm - A Race
9pm - B Race
10pm - C and SS Race

If last year was any indication of what this year will be like, you can expect Awesome!
The course designers and builders reached new levels last year with creative, fair, fun and fast courses. Sure Mt Pleasant was not really fair or fast and sometimes not so much fun (more pain then fun), but the environment was off the charts! You know what to expect now for that race.

I'm sure there will be course design surprises now that some of the rules have changed, look forward to what I'm guessing will be course designer/builders Matt and Matt have up their sleeve for this year.

The same great food and stuff will be there and the A Race Bubba Cup will be back for it's 2nd year.

I think St. Louis area cross is alive and well, it just keeps getting better year over year.

15 days til Pride CX!

Cross Practice

19 days to go for the real thing!

What rest looks like

Six full days off the bike is now over. Was not that bad really, stayed busy with bike race promotion related stuff, glued on the CX tires, organized all my cross stuff for the upcoming season...... that sort of thing.

What does six days off the bike do to the numbers?

Red line is fatigue: Way up before rest as I went on some long rides three days in a row right before the break. Took it up to its highest point (most fatigued) for the year to a 105 TSS. Big drop over six days to 35 TSS as of today.

Blue line is fitness: Just before the break it hit a high point (most fit) of the year, 80.4 TSB then dropped to a 67.3 TSB over the last six days. This to me does not mean the low fitness number will translate into the same fitness level I had in May when I was building it to reached 67, I still have the 80.4 I built over the season.

Gray bar is form: +32TSB as of today. Even though this says I have great form I think it will take a week a few days to get things balanced out. I don't think if I did a power test today I would see my best numbers. It may take a few days to get the legs to respond normally as they wake up from hibernation. The plan is to sue the Hermann TT this weekend as a potential power test to gauge where I'm at.

Overall feel rested, numbers say I'm rested so it's time to move forward as cross skills and high intensity specific cross workouts officially get into high swing. Man this is fun! 31 days til cross


Adam mills has some additional benefits of rest info on his blog, check it out.

Hermann Hilly TT this weekend

Hermann Hilly Time Trial this Sunday, first rider off at 11am.

Pre-Registration only, registration closes 6pm on Saturday.

Go here for details

Break Time

It's time to take an extended break before the training stress and weekly cross races begin. The next 5 or 6 days I'll be laying low with no time on the bike. Good to take a break like this, it's going to be a full and active season, only 36 days away. It also gives me time to get ready to host the Hermann Hilly TT next Sunday Aug 22.

Few things to note for those coming out for these races:

Hermann Hilly TT is pre-registation only. Registration will close Saturday Aug 21 around 6pm.

Hermann Cross Weekend registration opens Monday Aug 23rd at 6am. It's a register now pay at the event system. Staging in order of registration.

Weekend of Gravel

Fri, Sat and Sunday I had the good fortune of mucho gravel riding.

Come on along for a few photos.

Some of the gravel was in perfect condition....

Some not so much, I would call this a boulder road, gravel was new and huge on this section. Thankfully this did not last too long.

Getting the day started early made for more than perfect riding conditions.

Small amounts of paved trail could not be avoided.

With over 8 hours in three days this really peaked out the training load for the year. And shot the fatigue way up. With a pre-cross season break coming up in a few days I think that puts me in a good place.

40 days till cross!

Increasing Intensity

Training load is as good as it's going to get, CTL peaked/stabilized in June where it's maintained for the last few months. You can take CTL only so high based on the hours you are able to train each week. It should stay there until the extended break I take 9 days from now.

With a good dose of threshold training and the beginnings of higher end intensity during the Dirt Crits behind me, its now time to focus on specific intensity work. I have a very light race schedule between now and Hermann Cross which is good so I can focus on weekday workouts and not worry about feeling fresh for weekend races.

Today I did a new for me VO2 MAx/ Variable power workout that certainly defined intensity! Tabata Intervals. 3 sets of 8 x 20 seconds On FULL GAS, 10 seconds OFF with 8 to 10 minutes between sets. Overall power numbers were a good place to grow from.

43 days til cross!

2010 Cross Schedule and bikes

Bikes
Fuji cross pro frame.
Race bike left, pit bike right.



Race Schedule
9/18: Hermann CX Day 1
9/19: Hermann CX Day 2
9/26: DE STAD CROSS 1(KS)
10/3: Boss Cross (KS)
10/10: DE STAD CROSS 2 (KS)
10/16: Bubba Cross 1
10/17: Bubba Cross 2
10/24: Bubba Cross 3
10/30: Bubba Cross 4
10/31: Bubba Cross 5
11/7: Bubba Cross 6
11/14: Bubba Cross 7
11/21: Bubba Cross 8
11/28: Bubba Cross 9
12/4: Mo St CX Champs (KS)
12/5: Topeka Cross (KS)
12/12: Washington CX
12/19: CXMAS

Aug for me is a move toward CX is every way. Tires will be glued on this week and cross specific workouts ramp up. The next two weeks I continue to work on threshold, start to hit the very high end of things and keep the endurance up.

46 more days!